Ballasalla, Isle of Man, 16th September 2021- The Space Data Association(SDA) has announced the launch of the T.S. Kelso Award for Space Safety. Recognizing outstanding contributions to space flight safety, the award is named for and on behalf of its inaugural recipient, Dr T.S. Kelso.
Dr Kelso’s professional career spanned decades of contributions to space situational awareness. As well as being personally instrumental in the founding of the SDA and the Space Data Center (SDC), the operational arm of the SDA, he is an internationally recognized leader in the field of Space Situational Awareness (SSA). Dr Kelso’s leadership within the Space Data Center organization drove technical improvements that further ensured that the SDA stayed on the cutting edge of performance.
The award was presented by Major General DeAnna M. Burt, Commander, Combined Force Space Component Command, United State Space Command, during the AMOS conference on 15th September. Major General Burt commented: “I am pleased to present the T. S. Kelso Award for Space Safety to its first recipient, T.S. Kelso. T.S. has ensured that satellite owner/operator data, SDA, and CSpOC data products are exchanged and understood by many satellite operators, working with them and our government space domain awareness experts to promote the best operational practices.”
Pascal Wauthier, Chairman, the Space Data Association, gave a virtual presentation during the event. He commented: “Advancing these SDA goals is a big team effort. Sometimes, however, we have an opportunity to formally recognize and celebrate specific contributors, whether individuals or small teams. T.S. Kelso has dedicated much of his time to tireless efforts in promoting the benefits of data sharing and making the operator community fully understand the limitations of existing systems, which drove the SDA’s founders to establish the Association.”
On receipt of the award, Dr T.S. Kelso, said: “”It is a great honour to receive this award. I know that there are a lot of people that made that possible, it wasn’t just me. The Space Data Center serves as a great role model for what we can do in a collaborative environment to help improve overall safety of flight today and going forward. We have a lot of challenges to face, and we can address these working together.”
The award, named in Dr T.S. Kelso’s honour will be presented annually going forward to recognize the tremendous contributions to the SDA and the application of SSA to enable Flight Safety.
